Gallery Crawls

I feel so techy.  I know, it's not much but please click on the links below to view 2 very short 'Gallery Crawl' videos of my students recent work.  Zentangle Landscapes and Mandalas.  They have worked so hard and their work needs a little bit of recognition.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Mandalas

Zentangle Landscapes

What Are the Biggest Misconceptions About Teaching Art?

http://www.theartofed.com/2013/04/03/what-are-the-biggest-misconceptions-about-teaching-art/

This is a great post from The Art of Education site.  Please read all the comments.   I've heard them all plus some other doozies.  My favorites this year:  When an EC teacher was asked for the modifications that were needed for her students so that the elective teachers could modify the work we do in our classes for her students (it's not just us art folk that don't get taken seriously) she wanted to know why, since all we do is 'play' on the exploratory hallway anyway.  This sounds horrible, but I do my best to avoid her in the hallway now and rarely look her in the face.  (Lesson #1 Don't cheese off the art teacher) Just recently, we found out that during fourth quarter, our 8th grade students would be pulled from our classes, a week at a time by homerooms for career counseling.  So, during any given week I could be missing 2 or 3 kids or maybe more from my class who I will either need to catch up the following week or give extra time to complete their projects.  Like I don't have to give them a grade and what I do in my class is not valid. No one consulted us or asked our opinion about this and it was just sprung on us at the last minute. That's just from people that I work with.  Fellow teachers and colleagues.  I guess that is the frustrating part.  I would HOPE that they might understand a little bit more of what I do in my classroom every day.  If they don't get it, how can I have any hope that my students and their parents will?

Sigh.  It's not easy being green.

Back to Reality

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Spring Break.  It is Sunday morning and I am finding myself in Back-to-School mode after spending the last week cruising to Nassau and Freeport, The Bahamas with my BFF.  It was a wonderful, relaxing week but everywhere that we went, I found myself thinking about my students and what I could share with them.  Does everyone else do that?  Yeah, don't answer that.  I know you do.

This is Winston, who sat outside the Straw Market in Nassau carving the most amazing figures out of wood.  He was truly an artist. Below is his almost finished Grouper.

I bought this little guitar made out of soda cans.  So many of the stalls in the Straw Market were selling these little recycled sculptures and I wish that I had taken pictures of them all.  There were cameras, airplanes, cars, motor cycles, trucks and animals.  I am wondering if there would be a way for my students to do this as a project but I am worried about their safety cutting the metal.  I may have to give this some more thought. Isn't it the cutest thing? 

Those of you who have been on a cruise are familiar with these towel creations.  Sculpture, right?  Admit it, you took pictures of your towel friends every night when you came back to your cabin, too.  Right?

 I won these trophies playing trivia on the Promenade deck.  Apparently, they are '24 Karat Gold Plastic'.  They will be displayed on my desk, at least for a little while.  I hope that my students will be proud of me.

I am glad that I was able to get away and have some fun because the most busy, hectic time of the year is about to begin.  As all my teacher friends know, fourth quarter can be a crazy time filled with field trips, testing and all kinds of activities that we don't normally do the rest of the year.  I generally see my students for about 6 out of the 9 weeks this last quarter and I try to cram as many fun and relevant projects as I can in that short time.  I have lots of ideas and as usual, am not sure how we are going to get it all done.  Never the less, I will be dreaming of floating, knowing that summertime is not far away.  Today, in the meantime, I still have laundry to do and I have to go to the grocery store since there does not appear to be a 24 hour buffet set up on my deck.

sigh
Back to reality.

So, I am taking this online class...

and we have been doing all kinds of techy things.  This week has been all things video and story telling.

Check out a mini 'Gallery Crawl' of some student work here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flb7-DLpzmk&feature=youtu.be

And my very first 'How To' video, featuring LaTasha twirling a kaleidocycle at the end.
Check out How to Make a Kaleidocycle by Tracey Smith on Snapguide.

Welcome to the 21st. Century, MizzSmiff!

Mandalas, Radial Symmetry, Transformations

This week we are creating mandalas in the art room. We are using reflections and rotations to create radial symmetry. Using math in the art room! Who would have thunk it! More pictures to follow.

I love this one so much!  I hate to say that when the artist showed it to me, I was totally shocked by how awesome it looked.  He got it! He really got it!

This student had done this design first , then changed his mind and started on something more ordinary.  When I saw this design, I told him that he TOTALLY needed to do this one.  This is from a student who has been apathetic in my class, at best.  He generally rushes through his work and puts very little care into what he is doing.  I hope that he didn't see me do my little happy dance when I walked away from his table.  I can't wait to see how this looks when he is finished!

Printmaking-the cheap way.

Zentangle landscapes.

Just a few pics of what we have been working on.